


Their Hearts Heart Each Other

by Pineapple_Rainbows



Category: Psych
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Gratuitous Pineapples, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Idiots in Love, Juliet O'Hara POV, M/M, Mentions of episode cases, My First Fanfic, Not Beta Read, excessive use of commas
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 03:38:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18307418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pineapple_Rainbows/pseuds/Pineapple_Rainbows
Summary: Juliet O’Hara had worked for the Santa Barbra Police Department for less than a week the first time she questioned the relationship between her partner and the resident psychic. There was simply no reason for Lassiter to be that physical when attempting to prevent the younger man from the running rampant through the kitchens.Or:Juliet watches two people she cares about be idiots, fail to use their words, and ultimately fall in love.





	1. I wonder...

Juliet O’Hara had worked for the Santa Barbra Police Department for less than a week the first time she questioned the relationship between her partner and the resident psychic. There was simply no reason for Lassiter to be that physical when attempting to prevent the younger man from the running rampant through the kitchens. Even though it does make for quite a good show she thought absentmindedly as her partner grabbed Shawn under his thighs. Sadly, before she could spend any more time watching Lassiter haul the shrieking psychic onto the counter and bodily (bordering on indecently) pin him there, duty called, and a dead man fell out of the dumb waiter onto her. Joys.

Despite having not been a detective for all that long (and despite the fact that her previous superiors had constantly under appreciated her just because she was blonde and not a heartless, middle-aged man), Junior Detective Juliet O’Hara was, in her own very worthwhile opinion, a damn good cop. She had earned that title fair and square through years of dedicated, hard work, and maybe a little bit of help from constantly being under-estimated and her ability to win the trust of the victims she worked with, simply by virtue of, again, not being a middle-aged, angry, prejudiced man. She mulled this all over as she surreptitiously eyed her new partner over her latest neatly completed and colour-coded reports. Time to prove she deserved that title.

The man in question was scowling something fierce and muttering under his breath about ‘that damn buffoon, who does he think he is? Flaunting around my crime scene with his stupid hair and his stupid clothing, ridiculing hard-working cops everywhere and making a joke about everything and not even funny jokes either. God damn it I will arrest him for something in the name of Sweet Lady Justice.’ If Juliet didn’t know better, she would think her partner was obsessing over Shawn. He seemed to spend enough time thinking and talking about the younger man. One perfectly manicured eyebrow crept up her forehead as the sound of Shawn’s imminent, sugar-high, hurricane-level arrival rang out from across the bullpen. Lassiter visibly twitched, and his gaze spun with alarming accuracy to settle on the other man. His scowl deepened. His pen snapped. Juliet clamped her hands over her ears a fraction of a second before he let out an enraged bellow of “SPENCER!”. His reports lay abandoned beside his former pen; his hands were curled into fists at his sides. Gus took one look at the approaching shit-show and scarpered for the exit with an undignified scream. Shawn however, she was interested to note, didn’t even spare a glance at his partner’s rapid escape, and if he hadn’t called out one final ‘C’mon son!’ over his shoulder, she would have been willing to say he hadn’t even noticed. His gaze hadn’t left Lassiter’s from the moment he stepped foot through the doors. To her amusement, his grin only seemed to grow as the grouchy detective arrived right in front of him, forcing him to step back to avoid an outright collision. Juliet grabbed her report and nonchalantly wandered over to file it. If that happened to keep her in view and ear shot of the two men she was trailing then that was just a happy accident. 

“Spencer, a word.” Snarled Lassiter through gritted teeth, one hand clamped firmly on the back of the psychic’s neck as he manhandled him slightly further away from the officers who were not-so-stealthily following the commotion.   
“Sure thing Lassi-frass” replied Shawn with a cheeky grin and slipped his arm around the older man’s waist. Juliet waited for Lassiter’s threats of bodily harm unless the offending limb was removed immediately, but he only shifted his grip on the other’s neck to allow them to fit more comfortably together as they disappeared towards the interrogation rooms. Juliet carefully filed the aggressive intimacy away in her expanding mental folder of evidence. She slipped her report into the correct place and sauntered back to her desk with a delighted grin on her face. This was going to be good.


	2. Any Attention is Better than No Attention

By the time she found herself surveying the room where a man had apparently committed suicide, Juliet had amassed quite a folder of evidence that there was definitely something going on between Carlton and Shawn. She wasn’t quite sure what yet, and she was even less sure if the two of them were aware of it, but it was more than co-workers, and, she suspected, more than antagonistic friends. At the very least, she was fairly certain Shawn was crushing big time on the head detective. If his juvenile behaviour didn’t scream pulling pigtails on the playground then she didn’t deserve to carry this badge. As if summoned, the man in question waltzed straight over to them. A quick glance confirmed that once again, despite directing most of his flirtatious comments at her, Shawn’s gaze flitted back to Carlton more often than not. As amusing as it had been to watch the psychic carry around the cat for most of the case so far, she couldn’t help but feel that he was mostly doing it for the reaction it provoked from Carlton. She could practically see the steam coming out the other man’s ears, and she wasn’t even going to get started on the genuine look of concern that briefly flared as Shawn’s ‘cat’ told Carlton off for his heart-attack coffee. He squashed it under his usual glib façade fairly quickly, but not before she saw Carlton’s soften minutely in return.

When Shawn started his ‘dazzle and stretch’ routine, she had to bite her lip hard to stop from smirking: Lassiter lasted less than a minute before he ‘reluctantly’ ventured into Chief Vick’s office, ostentatiously to ‘put an end to that man’s endless malarkey and shenanigans’, but Juliet wasn’t stupid. She caught his gaze as it struggled to keep from wandering. Interesting she thought. Shawn, she noticed with interest, instantly gravitated to his favourite detective’s side, despite being ‘unaware of his actions due to his psychic trance’ or whatever bullshit he liked to claim. The tiniest of giggles snuck past her when Shawn deposited himself in her partner’s lap. Not because of Shawn’s actions; because of Carlton’s. His hands automatically steadied the younger man and he seemed to have to expend genuine effort before summoning up any kind of glare and snappy retort. If Shawn’s answering smirk was anything to go by, she wasn’t the only one to notice the lack of resistance to the brief cuddle. She made sure she had schooled her expression back to something resembling professional concern before Carlton emerged from the office. His ears were slightly pink, and the corners of his mouth seemed to be making a valiant attempt at curling up. Juliet mentally added a heart next to their names on her folder of evidence.

Things only got more interesting from there out. Within just a few weeks, Juliet had lost track of the number of times Shawn had irritated Carlton until he pushed him around, or the number of times she knew Shawn was nearby, not because of his incessant flirting or bad jokes, but because Carlton was struggling to affect his usual grumpy persona in the face of the psychic’s antics. She smiled quietly to herself as she watched Carlton’s shoulders lower a fraction as his gaze flicked with reliable accuracy to Shawn chatting with Buzz on the other side of the precinct. 'Happy is a good look on you, partner' she thought as Shawn’s attention returned to Carlton like a compass to north, and his usually over-the-top smirk faded slightly to a genuine look of affection. He waved and Carlton blushed. 'Definitely a good look' she concluded and added a second heart to their folder.


	3. Smoothies are Perfect Analogies

It wasn’t until Shawn approached her about solving Carlton’s astronomer’s case for him that she began to suspect that he was more invested in whatever the pair had going on than a simple passing crush. The man looked genuinely upset by Carlton’s lack of self-confidence, and solving a case without taking all the credit or making a big scene? That wasn’t something she ever expected to see from Shawn. She wasn’t sure what had been said between them at that bar, but Shawn was determined, and Juliet was not going to pass up an opportunity to glean a bit more information about the situation. 

“What’s gotten in to you Shawn?” She asked casually as they waited for Carlton to catch up with them at the Space Centre. 

“Oh, lots of things Jules. For starters I ate all of Gus’s emergency supply candy on the way here. That must have gotten quite a way into me by now.” He gestured vaguely at his lungs, like he genuinely believed she bought into his dumb act. “Plus, that smoothie – pineapple of course – but I think the real question, is what had gotten into that one super mean dinosaur in Land Before Time, like, why were all the other dinosaurs suddenly okay with that bully?” He turns his puppy-dog eyes on her, but she’s well versed in Spencer-speak now so simply raises an eyebrow at him and waits. She can tell the moment he realises his babble isn’t working to distract her like he hoped because his rant about the adorableness of different dinosaurs tapers off into an indistinct mumble and his eyes jump about nervously before settling just left of her own unwavering gaze. “Dunno watcha mean Jules” he mumbled petulantly. She makes a small sound of disbelief and crosses her arms. She’s been in enough interrogations. She knows how this works. Shawn pouts. She taps a foot. Shawn’s lip trembles ever so slightly. She lets her expression shift subtly from stern to concerned, and he breaks, right on cue. “Ok fine!” he throws his hands up in defeat. “It’s just, it’s Lassie, man, y’know? You didn’t see him, all down on himself and sad. Like an abandoned puppy, or a forgotten banana squashed by the superior pineapple. But It’s not the pineapple’s fault! Even if it feels a bit bad for the puppy-banana. And maybe wants to help the banana. By, y’know, solving a case about suspicious murdery astrono- I mean, um, astro- asto- AVOCADOS. Yeah! The pineapple wants to help the banana figure out what happened to the avocado because the banana is actually really great, and loyal and man it just has the best eyes and don’t even get me- err, I mean the pineapple- started on that sternum-bush, and even when it’s grumpy, it’s just because it’s a banana and can’t be a pineapple but you need all sorts to make a fruit salad, or, no, even better, a pineapple and banana smoothie! It just works, Jules, don’t you see? I have to solve this so Lassie won’t feel like his banana isn’t good enough and we can…” he trails off and Juliet silently recites the first 5 parts of the California state penal code to stop herself from giggling at the ridiculous but oddly adorable speech that just got blurted by the embarrassed man in front of her. 

“Shawn,” she eventually manages once she’s schooled her voice into that of ‘concerned friend’ instead of ‘delighted soon-to-be matchmaker’, “Shawn, are you trying to tell me you want Carlton to share a smoothie with you?” He blinked twice, then shook his head as his trademark smirk slipped back into place. ‘Damn,’ she thought, ‘pushed to quickly O’Hara.’ His mask is firmly back in place.

“Nah c’mon Jules, don’t be the last chocolate penny at the bottom of the candy sack, we’ve got a murder to solve!” 

“And a banana to cheer up,” she couldn’t help but mutter quietly to herself as the psychic literally skipped over to where Carlton had just appeared around the corner and pushed and pulled at the other man until Carlton grabbed him by the shoulder in an attempt to prevent his coffee from going flying. His growl of ‘Spencer…’ seemed to be lacking even more of his customary venom than usual, and the pair subtly leaned into the other’s touch as they made their way back towards her. ‘Yup,’ she thought, ‘Shawn is definitely in deep.’ A quick glance at her partner’s face cemented things even further. ‘And Carlton is not far behind him.’


	4. Courtship Pineapples

Juliet sighed with quiet amusement and watched Shawn Spencer attempt to be stealthy. He was not doing well. In fairness, she might not have noticed him quite as instantly if it hadn’t been for the frantic hand waving and oh-so-subtle whisper argument that was being directed at him from behind the nearby pillar. Admittedly she would have to move a whole two inches to her right to see more than Gus’s hands, but that didn’t make his irritation and borderline panic any less noticeable. For all that Shawn was clearly an excellent snoop and genius detective, tiptoeing across the precinct whilst carrying a ridiculously oversized pineapple in front of his face (was it meant to be some kind of disguise? Juliet had no idea what he was thinking - 'he probably hadn’t been', she concluded as she watched Shawn trip over a chair that had been tidily concealed by his fruit mask) was not his most sneaky approach. Juliet absently flipped through the report in front of her, attempting to at least look like she was working, and tried to figure out what on earth Shawn was hoping to achieve here. Clearly, he was aiming at Carlton’s desk, no surprise there, but the detective had been down in the interrogation room for the past half an hour, a fact Shawn should absolutely be aware of. Combined with Gus’s obvious disapproval for whatever hair-brained scheme the psychic had concocted, the giant pink bow stuck at an angle on the front of the pineapple, and Shawn’s completely obvious infatuation with the head detective, it left only one sensible conclusion. Juliet O’Hara was currently watching one disastrous attempt at 'secret' courtship unfold like a slow-motion car crash, all from the comfort of her own desk. She couldn’t decide if the whole thing was laughably hopeless or sickeningly precious. ‘Bit of both…’ she decided as Shawn ducked into an uncoordinated roll, arriving with a crash underneath Carlton’s desk. The courtship pineapple wobbled into view a moment later and succeeded in sending at least two pens, an open case file, and the computer keyboard crashing to the floor, before being settled down with reverence, front and centre. As if Carlton might have missed the giant, spiky offering if it had been any less in the way. A vibrant sticky note was next to appear from beneath the desk. ‘For my favourite banana, H&Ks xox’ it declared, inside a wonky heart. It joined the pineapple in pride of place on Carlton’s desk. His mission apparently achieved, Shawn emerged from under the desk with a triumphant grin and flashed a quick thumbs up towards Gus. Juliet shook her head in bafflement. She honestly had no idea how her partner would react to this.

At that moment, the man in question materialised around the corner in a stormy rage, causing two rookie detectives to flee to the relative safety of the break room lest they face the full force of the impending shouting spree. Juliet spared a quick glance towards where Shawn had been mere seconds before and wasn’t too surprised to find he had disappeared. That man was very good at playing the idiot when he wanted to, but by god did he know when to get out of the way of imminent trouble when it suited him. He’d be somewhere nearby she knew; he wouldn’t want to miss Carlton’s reaction to the pineapple after all. Speaking of…

Juliet didn’t even have to be subtle in her observation of Carlton’s expressions when he ground to a halt beside his desk; the man’s gaze was fixed firmly on the fruit before him. His genuine anger faded into a perplexed glare almost immediately, and the shout of ‘Spencer’ or ‘O’Hara’ or even ‘McNabb’ that by all accounts should have deafened half the precinct thirty seconds ago visibly dissipated. He reached out almost absentmindedly and brushed his fingers over the note Shawn had left him. Juliet’s heart melted at the blush that crept over her partner’s ears and the tiny half smile that only ever seemed to exist when he was around Shawn broke through his scowl. Then before anyone else could notice, Carlton visibly built his walls back up, shuttered the hopeful look out of his expression, and started to gather his scattered belongings whilst griping audibly about that ‘Stupid idiot with his stupid obsession with pineapples.’ It did not, however, escape Juliet’s notice that the note disappeared surreptitiously into Carlton’s jacket pocket with some impressive sleight of hand. 

With the desk back in order and the offending tropical offering carefully relegated to a drawer, Juliet decided the latest instalment of ‘Shawn and Carlton are oblivious’ was probably done, and she finally dragged her attention back to her stolen car report. Before she could even focus on the make and colour of the vehicle though, she finally found Shawn’s newest hiding spot behind a potted plant in the far corner of the room, and her heart melted all over again. If she’d thought Carlton’s expression had been adorable, it was nothing compared to the look on the younger man's face. Gone was the manic grin and glib façade. His gaze was finally still, focused entirely on Carlton. The hyper-observant expression normally so busy cataloguing and remembering had faded into one of rare vulnerability: Open. Honest. And completely, utterly in love


End file.
